Randy Travis homage planned by friends, fans, and musicians
Grand Prairie (CBSNewsTexas.com)— Country music superstar Randy Travis will be honored by friends, fans, and musicians. Texas Heroes & Friends will honor Randy Travis at the Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie at 7 p.m. Wednesday on NOVEMBER 15.
Travis and his wife Mary discussed the show with CBS News Texas. "We're going to have a kick-in-the-pants kind of time," remarked Mary. "We'll pretend the gate was left open. Lots of fun." She said they wanted the performance in Texas because "where we live, that's where we love."
It will feature several local and national performers singing and covering Travis' tunes. Although promoted as a tribute to the great, the concert will support The Randy Travis Foundation. Travis' 2013 stroke left him with right-sided paralysis and aphasia. He founded his charity to raise stroke awareness.
"Fortunately, we have survived that, and we have a wonderful life and a wonderful opportunity to share with people what we have learned from the experience about strokes, stroke awareness [and] preventing strokes," added Mary.
The performance will include Nashville singer-songwriter Paul Overstreet, Travis' close friend. He cowrote Travis' hits including "Forever, and Ever Amen." Overstreet co-wrote multiple Travis songs, including "Forever and Ever, Amen."
"He recorded those songs and made them huge," claimed he. So he's given us much. I loved being asked to play for his foundation."
Travis may not sing anymore, but those who know him say his music and charity are helping others more than ever.
"Years ago, he said when he first started playing music, 'I thought if I could touch one life then I have done my job,'" Mary remembered. "I told him, 'You have done it a million times over.'"
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